EDMONTON - For Indy Lights racer David Ostella, the race track is no place for mom.

Now in his second season on the circuit that’s the last step on the way to North America’s top open-wheel racing circuit, IndyCar, the Maple, Ont., product and Team Moore Racing driver has always put family first, with one minor exception.

“In go-karting is when I banned her from the track,” Ostella joked with regard to his mom Maryanne. “She came to watch one go-kart race and she was bawling. I didn’t even do anything. I was just driving around, so I was like, ‘Mom, I think you’ve got to stay home when it comes to the racing.’

“Luckily for me, at the Toronto race, she had to go away with my sister for a dance competition, so I didn’t have to worry about her at the track.”

While his mom may not have been overjoyed by Ostella’s entrance into the sport when he was eight, like the rest of Ostella’s tight knit family, she’s a dedicated supporter of her son’s dream.

“She supports it. She’s definitely all for it. She ­definitely doesn’t like the danger and gets very nervous when I’m on track, but she’s definitely there as support,” Ostella said.

“The family definitely supports me. They’ve supported me since Day 1. Right when I got into a car we had a big family meeting and we talked about if I really wanted to do it and if I really wanted to pursue it.

“From then on the whole family has been on board.”

Since first watching Formula One races on TV and then getting a chance to test his driving skills when he got behind the wheel of a go-kart for the first time, racing has been a passion for Ostella, whose first sporting love was hockey.

“It’s hard to say,” Ostella said with regards to what drew him to racing. “Being a Canadian first thing I was doing was hockey. I think that’s every Canadian’s sport that they get into. Then when my dad took me to go see my uncle who was doing go-karting I just got into it.

“I loved it. I won my third race and I was hooked from then on.”

With no one other than himself standing between success and failure, Ostella came to embrace the sport’s individualism.

“I enjoyed it not ­really being a team sport, because when you’re out there on the track it’s just you. In hockey you can rely on a defenceman, a goalie. (In) racing everything is based on you,” Ostella said. “You’ve got your crew, but when you’re actually on the track, there’s nobody that can help you. You have to look out for yourself.”

Coming off a seventh-place finish in the Indy Lights at the Honda Indy Toronto, and two top-five finishes prior to that race, Ostella heads into the Edmonton Indy looking forward to testing his skills on another street course.

“I think it’s a great track,” Ostella said of Edmonton’s City Centre Airport. “I ­really like the street courses — St. Pete, Toronto, Baltimore and Edmonton. Last year being my first year, I definitely enjoyed the track, especially with the bumps that kind of make it challenging.”

While Ostella is a fan of the Edmonton track, he’ll be hoping for a better result than he got last year in the Alberta capital. Ostella was unable to complete the first 160-kilometre Indy Lights race in 2011, before finishing eighth in the other 160-kilometre event.

“Last year I was actually taken out in Turn No. 3, the one hairpin turn. One of the back markers just kind of bumped and ended up hitting me,” Ostella said. “The second race was actually a great battle with Daniel Morad, another Canadian. We had a good battle throughout the whole race.”

With more experience under his belt and racing for a new team this season after making his debut with Jensen MotorSport, Ostella is just hoping to continue his progression as a driver over the rest of 2012 with more top-five finishes.

After that, he’s hopeful he can follow in the footsteps of former Team Moore Indy Lights driver, and fellow Canadian, James Hinchcliffe onto the IndyCar circuit and a start at the Indianapolis 500.

“I’m definitely more comfortable on the tracks, also with the car as it being my second year after learning everything last year,” Ostella said. “With Team Moore they’ve got the experience with the car and with the tracks, so it’s definitely helped.

“If we do it little by little, then we’ll do it little by little. I know next year we’re definitely going to focus on getting into the Indianapolis 500 race.

“I know my family would go crazy about that. The whole family watches that race and to actually have someone from the family in that race participating, they’d just go crazy.”

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Edmonton Indy: Ostella’s love for racing was born on the go-kart track

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